Norman’s Cay

5/27/2021

Today we moved further south into the Exumas, and are anchored tonight off a beach at Norman’s Cay.  This island has a very colorful history, and that appears to be continuing today.

In the 1970’s a convicted drug smuggler, Carlos Lehder, bought some property on this island.  His property included an old airstrip which he repaired and extended, and which became a major base for Medellin cartel cocaine transshipment into the US using small planes.  Lehder ended up intimidating the other island residents until they abandoned the island, though many native Bahamians remained to work for Lehder.

The stories of this era are really legendary.  In addition to being a major shipping hub for illegal products the pilots tell stories of being met by jeeploads of naked women upon arrival.  Apparently the party atmosphere continued nonstop while the island was in it’s heyday.  Unfortunately for Lehder his blatant bribing of Bahamian government officials caught up with him, and in 1988 he was extradited to the US where he was convicted of trafficking.  He was released last year after spending 33 years in prison.

We are anchored off a beautiful beach tonight, as shown in the photo below. 

We took the dinghy around to a shallow seawater lagoon to see the airplane wreck there, shown in the photo below.  During the heyday this plane was landing here with a load of sod for the property, but it was scheduled to fly out later in the day with a load of cocaine.  The pilot decided to do a touch and go to familiarize himself with the area, and in doing so he crashed into the lagoon.  Today it is a popular snorkeling spot, though it appeared to me the plane hulk is beginning to disintegrate.

We did find a local tiki bar on the beach where we stopped to talk with the locals.  It was a really nice spot, and the locals were great people. 

Lehder’s airstrip has been further extended, and is still in use today, though likely not for cocaine shipment.  We saw many business jets landing and taking off from the runway.  In the first photo below the top of a jet’s tail can be seen above the trees while we were in the bar, and I went over to the runway and got a photo of a plane taking off.

Apparently this island has started a major development for billionaires who want to fly into the island on their jets.  The locals claimed many new tech billionaires have been there to look at property, and some are building mansions on the island.  We found the locals to be very friendly, like most everywhere in the Bahamas.

Tomorrow we will continue south into the Exuma Land and Sea Park, a national park.